Friend to Animal Souls
by Claire Starsword
Summary: Stories of Lisanna learning her magic and befriending the animals she take over. Future chapters might not be in chronological order. This was inspired by Chapter 381 of the manga so beware of spoilers if you didn't read it yet.
1. Cat Soul

**A/N: I thought I wouldn't write fanfics anymore since I have a lot of trouble writing, but this idea was in my mind for a while and I wanted to act on it before I lost motivation. I enjoyed making it so I hope you'll like it too.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

This is the story of a young animal lover  
full of smiles and hopes, a cute magical girl.  
Wishing to spread happiness around  
her magic wasn't just strength,  
but also a way to befriend many different souls.

The first one to lend her power was the cat.

* * *

At the start, it was so that her sister didn't feel so lonely.

A few days had passed since they had joined the Fairy Tail guild, and any hope Lisanna and her brother had that their sister would feel better about herself there was gone. Despite joining, she had made no attempt to befriend or even talk to the other members, and was also putting distance between her and her own siblings. The confident girl with a bad attitude and a hidden caring side they knew was almost gone. Now she was just a lonely figure hiding in a cloak ashamed of her own body.

Lisanna and Elfman knew they had to do something. They wouldn't let their most beloved person feel left out of the family. And so the younger sister brought up an idea. A vague, hopeful thought that had been born in the day she got that meaningful red mark on her shoulder, and was now clear in her mind.

While living in a quiet and isolated village, the siblings didn't have much contact with magic besides hearing the vague rumors about mages and beasts around the world. And when it came to their lives, it took away their home and their sister's happiness. So far, that power had only been painful to them.

But in the guild they saw a different side of it. Lisanna had met, right on her first day, the pink haired dragonslayer that, despite all loneliness, had pride in the magic connecting him and his father. She had seen the mages giving their all to become stronger every day and enjoying their jobs. Those people believed in the power of their hearts, and wanted nothing but to protect their friends with that. It was wonderful.

And if that magic could connect humans and dragons, if it could give all those people such great smiles, it would certainly unite their family again. It was with this in mind that Lisanna and Elfman asked the Master to teach them Take Over.

* * *

Soon, Lisanna found another reason to pursue that power.

She had always loved animals, and was very good at getting closer to them without scaring them away. She would love to have the same body as them and understand them better. And she promised she wouldn't hurt them for this. Creatures normally resisted to be taken over, even if just partially, so most mages would fight and weaken them first. But, if they became close and understanding of the target instead, and if there were trust between them, the process wouldn't be so forceful. That was what Lisanna was trying to do. Every day, she would gather stray cats around the town and play with them for hours.

"What are you doing, Lisanna?" Natsu asked once, watching her sitting in the grass of Magnolia's South Gate Park, surrounded by the little felines. The girl had the feeling he had been observing the scene for a while, and finally decided to come and talk to her.

"I'm playing with these little guys." she didn't mention her magic as she didn't want anyone to know yet. She feared Mira would try to stop her if she heard about it. "I love cats, and when Mira-nee and Elf-nii-chan are not around, I go looking for some of them to play with. I never feel lonely with them."

"You mean they just follow you around? I thought they just ignored people. I've never seen so many cats in the same place." There were at least ten of the felines around the girl, and they seemed very comfortable. One of them, with grey fur and black stripes, even climbed her legs and sat on her lap, wanting to be petted.

"Yeah, it's hard to explain, but I think they just like me." She shrugged. "It has always been like this."

"That's weird."

"Hey, don't say it like that, that's mean!" the girl pouted. "Don't you want to play with them too? They can be great friends!"

"Friends..." the boy became thoughtful. "Do you really like them so much?" Lisanna nodded.

"Yup! And I want them to think of me like that, too! If we become friends, we can share our strength, right?"

"I guess so... Yeah, that sounds nice!" he replied, and Lisanna felt relieved someone else thought like her, even if he didn't know she was talking about her magic. While she still didn't make much progress (she could swear she got claws at some point, but they disappear quickly and never came back again), she certainly wouldn't give up just yet.

* * *

"Aaahh... I give up..."

It had been a week since she had that talk with Natsu, and Lisanna was lying disheartened at her bed. She had made absolutely no progress besides getting some temporary patches of fur at times, and didn't know what to do. She tried to get advice from the books at the guild, but they sounded too complicated. And Master had said the basics he explained at the start should be enough for her now.

Everything looked pretty hopeless now, and she cried. She always hated studying, and should've known from the start she couldn't learn something so hard by herself. Elfman was also failing at his magic, so she couldn't ask for tips, and Mira wouldn't be of help too, as troubled as she was with her own power. Lisanna had no one to run to, and it pained her that she was so useless alone. She was losing hope.

A low sound of something light hitting the ground reminded her that she wasn't the only one in the room. The grey cat she played with in the park had become closer to her than the others at some point, and even though she didn't want to give her family the trouble of caring for a pet –they had just settled in the town and there were lots of other stuff to worry about– she did brought it home and gave it some food at times. She even practiced her take over in it hiding in her room like now.

Lisanna got up and picked up the thing the cat had pushed off the bed while moving around. It was a picture book she liked very much. It was very colorful and always made her feel better at hard times. The last days she had looked at it a lot.

The cat meowed as she sat in the bed again. She quickly wiped her tears and smiled at it.

"Oh, you want to know what's this?" Lisanna looked softly at the book's cover. "I never showed it to you, right? It's my favorite picture book; Mira-nee gave it to me a long time ago. It's about a magical girl, and she has a lot of weird creatures as friends, and they get in a lot of trouble but always save everyone in the end." Her expression became sad again. "I wanted to be like her, you know. I wanted to transform into a lot of colorful animals and make everyone happy."

The cat climbed up to her lap, and she started petting it.

"Say, was I annoying you guys all this time? I thought we could become friends and share our power, but was I still forcing you to stay around? Because I didn't want to, I didn't want to hurt anyone. All I wanted was to make Mira-nee happy..."

She flipped through the book, not really paying attention to the story she knew by heart now. She just admired the colorful pictures, where the heroine was smiling and winking and making cute poses while shining with magic.

"Do you think anyone has a pretty magic like that? Everyone in the guild has cool and different magics, so I wonder if there's one where you shine like that. It would be fun!"

She got up and made mimicked some poses from the magical girl. Eventually she started to make her own too, saying funny things like 'I'm the magical girl of animal souls, Lisanna!', and 'This is my cute and shining magic! Animal Soul!'

"Yes, I love these animals with all my heart, and I'll protect everyone with their power! I can help Mira-nee and Elf-nii-chan with them, I believe in this!"

And then Lisanna stopped in the middle of her next pose, staring at her hands. They were entirely covered by grey fur, and had big claws in it.

"Ah! But I wasn't even trying to..." she exclaimed surprised, looking at how perfect the paws looked. It was better than any of her attempts, but she didn't even notice she had used magical power at that. Was she too caught up in her fantasies?

"That's actually kind of embarrassing..." she sure hoped her siblings were still out home and hadn't heard her saying all that stuff before. "Though it did cheer me up a bit. Hey, cat, let's try it again!"

Lisanna touched the cat gently, and pushed her magical power into it like she was taught to. Already used to it and being pretty attached to the girl, the animal looked relaxed, and she was satisfied she at least manage to learn how to not hurt them like this.

"Alright! I better not transform much yet, I'll just try changing my arms too." She then chanted. "I love these cats, and I'm sure I can take over them! Animal Soul!"

But nothing happened. And after releasing her power carelessly like that, her paws began to fade away.

"Waaahh! No! I was doing so well, I can't fail again!" She cried, and at last managed to keep the left paw intact. She sighed. "I guess this is better than nothing. But what made it work before, then? I was motivated at both times!"

Lisanna inspected her left paw, and eventually looked at the rest of her arm too, stopping at the mark at her shoulder.

"Master said magic comes from the heart... am I not wishing enough for this?" the thought hurt her deeply. "That's not right, I really want to learn magic. And I really love my family, and the animals, even the people of the guild I've just met... And even so... I'm..."

"I'm still worse than them, right?"

She had been disappointed when she saw Elfman was just as bad as her in magic. She thought he would be great at it, and help her when she needed it, like always. She could always count on her siblings for that. She was always worried to hurt the cats while training. She was always hiding, because if Mira prohibited her from learning magic she surely wouldn't defy her.

Despite looking confident, Lisanna didn't believe in herself to do things alone. She was no heroine, just the little sister in the sidelines. The people she looked up to wouldn't be like that. She thought of the heroine in the book, always leading her friends in adventures. She thought of Natsu, with all the pride he had in his magic. She thought of her sister, brave enough to face a demon in order to protect everyone.

Her idols would never give up when it came to the people they loved, no matter how worried they were.

"And I might not be as good as them, but... I still want to see this to the end! It was my idea, after all!"

Lisanna closed her eyes, and extended her arms to the side, concentrating. While trying to gather the rest of her magical power, her main focus was the feelings running through her. Her heart.

"I want to see Mira-nee smiling again... I want to protect her and Elf-nii-chan...I don't want to stay behind, and shy away from the risks... I want to stand with them... "

"Even though all living beings die one day, even though I will die one day... Until that, I want to make everyone happy! It doesn't matter if they're humans or animals or demons... they can still be connected by their souls!"

Had Lisanna opened her eyes at that time, she would've seen her body shining beautifully with her own magic.

Instead, she turned around, in a free and graceful movement.

"Take Over: Animal Soul!"

And her body was now a cute cat-human hybrid.

She could feel the new ears twitching on top of her head. The sensitive nose and the whiskers. The tail dancing on her back. The warm fur covering her legs and arms, and the four paws that felt just as natural as her human hands and feet.

"I-I..." She was speechless. "This is so great! Yay!" She jumped and danced around in celebration. Then she picked up the cat that was still in the room and hugged it.

"Thank you, thank you! We'll keep playing tomorrow and every other day too! And I'll bring lots of food for you and your friends!" Then her expression softened. "We'll all grow up and get stronger together, right?"

Her eyes met the cat's, and she felt she could understand its feelings. It liked her. It was curious. It would always stick around because it was having fun. She put it in the bed again.

"I can't wait to show this to Mira-nee! She'll be so happy to know she's not alone anymore!" She smiled and once again admired her new body. That's when she finally noticed a small problem.

While her arms and legs were covered by the grey, striped fur, the rest of her body wasn't. And despite that, her clothes were gone too. She was completely exposed.

"Kyaaaaaa!" The girl shrieked. "T-that happens too? Cat, I still need more of your fur, please!" She reached for the cat, despite feeling it wouldn't help much. She had already realized that she had taken over that cat long ago during her training, and it was her lack of confidence and experience that didn't let her use its body. If she wasn't fully covered it was probably her own mistake.

And besides, the cat wouldn't be of help anyway as it was fleeing through the window.

"Hey, don't ignore me like this, that's mean!" And she quickly covered herself in her blankets instead and whined. "Uwah... Even a bikini would already be better than this... I wonder if my clothes will come back when I turn this off..."

* * *

With that start, the girl learned important things  
but also had light hearted fun  
and engraved it in the bikini she used later on.  
After all, though wise and mysterious,  
cats are also very mischievous and pranksters.  
But looking back, don't you laugh off the things they do?


	2. Pig Soul

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, faved and/or followed this story, I appreciate the support. And sorry for the delay with this one.**

**The initial idea for this chapter is pretty much what inspired me to start this fanfic in the first place, yet writing it was harder than I thought, and I'm not sure if it went the way I wanted it to. But beating myself up for this won't bring me anywhere so I'll just it leave it for you guys to judge. Hope you'll enjoy it.**

* * *

A cute magical girl that spreads happiness.  
To be like that, she would be always smiling.  
Her sad thoughts about the past,  
and her musings on death,  
were long locked away so as to not worry anyone.

The first one to listen to them was the pig.

* * *

It was a beautiful sunny day and Lisanna was on a farm keeping a sick pig company.

One week had passed since she had learned her first take-over, but since Elfman was still working on his she had decided not to show it to her sister yet. After all, they were doing this for the sake of uniting the family once more and it would make no sense to leave her brother out of the reveal. So she would wait until he was also ready and surprise Mira together.

And so she had spent half the week helping Elfman train and playing with the kids of the guild she had already befriended, until she thought it would be nice to practice her magic a bit more and started looking for other animals she could take over. Somehow that had led her to a small farm in the outskirts of town, and though at the start the owner looked displeased with the little girl and her strange interest in his animals, he still let her wander around when she asked.

"What can I do?" he had said grumpily. "The way you Fairy Tail kids are, you're probably going to blow up stuff and come in anyway. Though you're polite enough to ask, and I never saw your face there before, so maybe there's still some hope for you. Try not to mess things up, okay? That people could use a new member with some common sense."

Lisanna thought his opinion about the guild was pretty rude, but she had been around long enough to know how destructive her fellow comrades could be, and how a few troublesome ones –Natsu was the first to come to mind- would pick fights and carelessly use their magic even around the town. Most of the citizens seemed to ignore and even laugh off their antics, but a few others weren't so carefree about them.

However it didn't take long for the girl to prove she wasn't going to cause trouble, and by the end of the day she was even helping to take care of the animals with her natural talent of getting close to them. While doing that, at some point she came to know of the little pig that had fallen sick not long ago. Despite the treatment it was receiving it still was in a bad shape.

"Are you sure you're going to stay there?" the owner had asked after noticing she was quietly standing next to the sick animal for a while. "That pig is not getting better anytime soon, if you want to play, you should check the others."

"It's alright, I already played with lots of the animals here." she replied with a smile. "This one is probably lonely from resting here all by himself, so I'm going to keep him company a bit."

The farmer stood there awkwardly for a bit. Why were those magic kids so weird? If that girl liked animals shouldn't her be bothering her parents to buy a dog or something? Why was she coming here and getting attached to a sick pig of all things? For all he knew that pig could end dying soon, and the last thing he wanted was to have to comfort a child he barely knew about her cute and loved animal dying.

He sighed. It was his fault for letting her come in the first place. Damn kids and their disarming yet troublesome innocence. Despite being a harsh and tough man he didn't want to kick the girl out after letting her in and using her help, but still...

"Honestly kid, you might be more grown up that you look, hanging around the town all by yourself, but you're still too young to be worrying about sick animals like this. It's already pretty sad when this happens with your own pets, so don't go looking for this kind of trouble with other people."

"I'm sorry." she said with a low voice. She had a bad feeling about what this talk would lead to. "Am I being creepy doing this?"

"Creepy? Nah, I wasn't thinking of it like that. It's more like you're too kind for your own good. If the pig gets worse, you'll end up feeling bad too."

"So you're worried he might die soon?" The man blinked a few times, surprised. She had said it so calm and naturally it was kind of scary. Was that just a spontaneous thought of a kid, or was it in her mind since the start?

"So, did you really go through this with a pet before?"

"I can't say they were really my pets, but I always liked to play with all the animals I could find around my old home. And many of them died as the years passed. I mean, they had no owner to take care of them, and I couldn't do much to help, so it was even harder for them." It was pitiful, but the girl seemed to accept things in such a mature way that the farmer could only keep staring at her with newfound respect.

"I'm sorry I'm talking about this sad stuff though, I didn't mean to do it." she quickly apologized. "We should be hoping for your pig to get better, right? After all, you're taking good care of him, so he'll be fine!"

"Yeah yeah, sure." He had the feeling she didn't really had all that hope, but was thankful for the less depressing mood anyway. "You should stay with it a bit longer then, it will feel better with a friend like you." And he left the girl alone with the animal.

A pale white-haired child that comes out of nowhere, stays around sick animals and peacefully talks about death... Yes, she was right, that was kind of creepy. Yet it was also so honest and gentle he couldn't think of it as a bad thing.

As soon as the farmer left her Lisanna began to deeply regret the conversation they had. She promised herself long ago she wouldn't go talking about death like that, as it only made people sad, yet she had rambled about it once again. Though the man was the one who started it, in a sense. He danced around the subject as he could, but it was clear he just wanted to protect her from whatever sadness could come next. Which was very kind of him, really, but she was actually used to this now.

She closed her eyes and let some very old memories replay in her mind.

* * *

"Died?"

"Y-yeah. You know, that stray cat you used to play with..." A young Mirajane said, trying to choose the words carefully. "The villagers found it dead today in the morning." She looked sadly at her little sister. "I'm sorry, Lisanna. I really didn't want that to happen to you, but it's... it's..." She stuttered for a bit. Even though she tried her best to be a reliable older sister she was still a child too. How was she supposed to explain death to another kid? "It's how the world works, I guess. It's really hard to explain, I'm sorry."

Lisanna awkwardly petted her big sister's head, feeling sad for her. Why was she feeling guilty if she had done nothing wrong?

"It's alright, Mira-nee, it's alright. Can we see her grave?"

"A grave?"

"Yes, when you die, you get a grave, right? The church has lots of graves for the people who died."

"So you want to make a grave for the cat?" The older sister smiled at the idea. "That's not bad. Let's call Elfman to help too, and find a good place for it!"

And thus began Lisanna's tradition of making graves for all the animals she lost along the years. And during all those times, there was a clear thought going through her head.

'As long as you remember someone, they'll live in your heart forever.' Did she hear that phrase somewhere, or thought it herself at some point? She couldn't remember, but it was a comforting thought anyway, and she dedicated herself to it. Every grave she made was so people could remember her dead friends, and she held dear to every memory of them.

She already couldn't remember her parents, so she would at least make sure to never forget her friends.

Lisanna never talked to her siblings about that, though. Unlike her, they were a bit older when their parents died and still had a few memories of them, so the subject was more painful for them and Lisanna avoided talking about it so as to not make them sad. All her thoughts on the matter were kept well hidden in her heart.

Thus, she was eager to talk about them to someone else, and took the chances she had whenever other kids of the village would approach her at a grave to see what she was doing. Unfortunately, that wasn't well accepted by most people, and it didn't take long for her to hear all kinds of gossip going around the place.

"That kid's kinda creepy, you know."

"I think she means well. Kids are so innocent about those things it comes off as creepy sometimes."

"I don't want my children to hang with someone that keep talking about such things!"

"It's probably because they lost their parents at such a young age..."

"Is she cursed or something? I always thought that family would be trouble for us one day."

"Well, all living beings do die one day, she's not telling lies there. Maybe it's your kids that need to grow up some more."

"Still, with those graves around... it's kinda creepy."

Creepy. Creepy creepy creepy. If Lisanna had to choose her most hated word, that would probably be it. And eventually, she gave up on opening up to anyone. She didn't want trouble with the villagers, and didn't want her siblings to get involved in the mess. She stopped talking to the other kids, stopped trying to know more of her parents, and stopped making everyone depressed with her weird accepting thoughts. After all, what she wanted the most was to see people happy.

And yet, she never stopped making those graves. She did make them in more hidden places from that moment on, but they were still there. Because her friends still deserved to be remembered and die peacefully too.

All living things die one day, it was unavoidable. But as long as you remember them, they will live in your heart forever. That was one of her most important beliefs, and she would keep it, even if she couldn't talk about it to anyone.

Lisanna snapped out of her reminiscing and came back to the present as she noticed the sun was almost setting.

"Ah, I better go home by now!" she turned to the pig at her side, staring at her with kind yet tired eyes. "I'll try to come again later, okay? I hope you get better soon!" And with a smile, she left.

Yet, on the way home, she was still deep in thought about a lot of things.

She had long hidden an important belief deep inside her heart so as to not hurt anyone.

Yet, didn't she realize while learning magic that she needed to be more confident and stand up for herself? Weren't her feelings her true strength?

It seemed like time to take another step forward.

* * *

Days later, the lonely pig was at its deathbed. Lisanna had visited it every day, and was quite surprised the farmer let her. The man was rude sometimes, but he had understood and respected her bond with the animal despite barely knowing her, and she was very thankful for that.

The girl gently touched the animal lying of front of her.

"It's kind of sad that we never met when you were healthy... but I'm sure you looked great then. You've been a nice company in these days, you listened to a lot of silly stuff I said, and you made me remember very important things too. So thank you for everything."

"You're going to be alright now, so don't be scared, okay? Everyone dies one day, but I'll make sure no one forgets you. And this time, it won't be just with a grave," She readied her magic. "I'll carry on the strength you had at your better days, for all my life. Is that fine with you?"

A clear sunny sky, a beautiful magical glow, some tears and the death of a pig. All these things marked Lisanna's first Full-Body Take Over.

* * *

"So that's what your magic was in the first place?"

Lisanna and the farmer were standing next to the grave they had just made for the departed pig. After taking over the animal, the girl had planned to just go away, leave the man to deal with the body in whichever way he wanted, and make the grave somewhere else outside. After all, she wasn't very sure a farmer would be sentimental about every single animal that died in his property, and she had bothered the man enough already.

Yet it turned that he had heard everything she said to the pig before, and decided that if she really cared to make a grave he could go along. That, and he also wanted to know why the hell the girl started to shine for a moment during all that.

He complained the whole time about how it was his fault for letting a sentimental kid walk around his property in the first place, and how he should be glad he didn't get worse troubles, and at the same time he kept on saying he enjoyed her company during those days. Lisanna thought he was a very odd but fun person.

After finished the grave, Lisanna explained her magic to him and demonstrated by turning into her new pig form. She asked the Master days before if it was okay to take over a sick creature, and he told her it was fine. The same way the magic could adapt the creatures' size and features to fit those of the user, it also mirrored her health condition.

"That's exactly how it looked before getting sick. I mean, except by the white hair there, that's really weird, you know. You look like its ghost or something."

"I guess you're right..." she went back to her human form and smiled sadly."I guess that makes it pretty creepy then."

"Yeah, you're very creepy." He answered. "But I guess the world is also kind of creepy, so you know what? Just stay as you are. And keep talking those mature things about death and being kind to every fluffy thing that crosses your way. You're going to be a good woman when you grow up."

The girl felt so flattered she didn't know how to respond at all, and he quickly changed the subject.

"But you should've told all you wanted was to copy my animals! Now I finally get what was going on!"

"Well, I did say my magic had to do with them... Sorry for not explaining more."

"Nah, I shouldn't have let you come in the first place! I'm getting too soft around children to let them pass over me like this!"

He stood silent for a moment , then spoke again.

"I understand nothing about raising a child, and hell I know what I'll do in a few months..." Lisanna blinked. She remembered seeing the man's wife a few times, and indeed, the woman was pregnant, but he didn't speak much on the subject and she didn't want to ask of it. "But you kids are smarter and deeper that we give credit for, huh?"

"Did you really mean all that? That you'll never forget all your little dead friends?"

For a moment, Lisanna just wanted to let out all her feelings. To tell of her deceased parents she never knew of, to talk of the graves she made at her villages and the people she upset, to tell of all the lonely thoughts she had on the matter while trying to accept the loss of her animal friends, and to show how peaceful she was now with the answer she had found. Because she felt that that man, and also all of her new friends at Fairy Tail, and probably even her siblings if she hadn't avoided the subject so much, would probably listen to, understand and support her in whatever she said as long as she said it with her heart.

But after hiding all of those feelings for so long, there was no way she would let it all out so easily. And so her answer was only a small part of all she wanted to say.

"I would love to. Because they make me happy, and I'm sure that as long as they live in my heart, I'll be strong enough to spread that happiness around!"

"Deep. So you better keep working on that. And if possible, not here, because it's getting late and I don't want to get in trouble with your family if they think I kidnapped you or something."

The girl panicked when she realized what time it was.

"Aaaaaahhhhh! I'm late to meet Elf-nii-chan! And today is the day we'll show Mira-nee our magic!"

She dashed away at the best speed she could, and the man could only smile and stare at the kid he thought to be so weird. If she wanted her friends to be never forgotten she was doing a good job, because he would never forget the sick pig that led him to meet such an odd girl.

* * *

Not all of the girl's thoughts were happy,  
but they were important beliefs all the same,  
and helped her in her way.  
How would she react if she knew back then,  
people would soon make more than one grave for her?  
Despite all, she would probably be touched by their care.


	3. Rabbit Soul

**A/N: As always, thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, followed and faved this story. I really appreciate it!**

**This chapter took all this time to be written since I didn't have a clear idea of what to do. Because of that, it's the shortest chapter so far, but I kinda like how it turned out. Hope you'll enjoy it too!**

* * *

Happiness is not just the joy of playing around,  
but also the peace of a quiet rest afterwards.  
Thus, the magical girl wished  
to give shelter and a warm embrace  
to whomever in need of them one day.

The one to give her a way to do that was the rabbit.

* * *

Mirajane, Lisanna and Elfman had just finished their first mission together and were now going back to the guild. Or at least, they would be, if not for a small problem along the way.

To be more exact, it had started to rain. A lot. And the siblings would be in big trouble if the youngest one hadn't found a rather odd shelter.

"Lisanna, are you sure it's safe to enter here?" Mira asked carefully while passing through the big entrance of a straw-covered burrow.

"It's alright, it's alright! It's an abandoned nest, I've been here bef-" Lisanna's answer was cut short as she was shocked by the sight in front of her. "Whoa! You're grown so much!"

At first, Mira and Elfman had no idea of who she was talking to, but then they realized they weren't the only ones there.

Next to Lisanna, occupying most of the space in the nest, was a giant rabbit with purple fur, with some bright green parts around the mouth and on the feet, and a red and white circle around the neck. Basically, it was a very weird sight, and Mira reacted accordingly:

"How the hell a rabbit gets this big?!"

"Is this the same rabbit from that time, Lisanna?" Elfman asked, and then Mira remembered that it wasn't the first time she had seen a rabbit of abnormal size.

She had chosen the mission they just completed because it was in a place they already knew, as they had passed through it during their travels before joining the guild. And at that time, Lisanna had spent some days playing with a similar rabbit that had decided to follow them. She even got lost at some point, and now Mira had a good guess of where she was at that time.

"You mean you were hiding in this nest when you got lost at that time? It was also raining back then." She looked for confirmation, and her little sister nodded.

"Yup!" She pointed at the rabbit. "At that time, she wasn't so big yet, but since the nest was this size already I thought she would grow up eventually. I didn't know that would happen so fast though! I guess this is a very special kind of rabbit!"

"Are you sure it's a rabbit, though?" Mira asked. "This is sounding more like a magical creature."

"I don't think so, sister." Elfman said. "We've seen a lot of strange animals since we left the village. I think they are normal, they just didn't live around our old home."

"Yeah, I heard some people at the guild saying that are lots of different animals at Magnolia's East Forest, for example!" Lisanna added. "I wanted to see them, but there are also beasts there, so I didn't want to go alone."

"Okay, okay, I get." Mira sighed. She was still getting used to living in a big town as mages, and still had to accept the weirdness around. But she felt she could trust her sister's talent with animals there, especially now that there was magic involved in it too."If you really think we can trust your friend here then it's alright for now. I wish this damn rain would just stop, though."

Lisanna said nothing in return, she just smiled. Ever since Mira told her where their mission was, she had hoped to meet her furry friend again, and now it was finally happening. The girl closed her eyes, tired, and snuggled next to the rabbit, feeling its warm and soft fur. She was feeling cold due to being caught in the rain before, but was sure that now she would be fine.

After all, nests are a place of motherly warmth.

* * *

The first time Lisanna met that rabbit, she didn't mind the odd colors it had. If anything, she found them to be refreshing. Because she and her siblings were completely lost, under cloudy gray skies, Mira hiding in a dark cloak and everything around them looking pale, gloomy and scary, but the vivid fur of that animal made her feel a bit better. It was like it had reminded her that the world still hadn't completely lost its colors.

And so she had quickly befriended the big rabbit that was almost her size, and it eventually decided to follow her around, and while her siblings were worried about that at first, they knew how their little sister could get attached to animals and didn't want to hurt her feelings sending her new friend away. They spent a few days trying to find their way out of those woods, and during that there was a moment where Lisanna and her furry companion got separated from the others. It was then that she found the burrow.

At first, the rabbit looked hesitating, and Lisanna got worried, thinking they had found a beast or something like that, given how big the burrow's entrance was. But then her animal friend started sniffing the grass around.

"Are you looking for something?" she asked, but obviously got no answer. However, when the animal finally stopped sniffing around, she felt it was disappointed. But before she could wonder more about it, she felt the first drops of rain.

"Oh no! Now it's going to rain?" And she quickly followed her friend that had already taken cover inside the nest. "We can't keep looking for Mira-nee and Elf-nii-chan like this..." Her eyes got teary. "I hope they are fine... I want to find them soon..."

Feeling hopeless, Lisanna sat down in the nest's floor, the rabbit watching her with curious eyes. Feeling that the animal was a bit nervous, she started to pet it.

"Sorry if I'm worrying you, I'm fine, okay?" the girl wiped away her tears, and then she noticed small colorful bits of something in the floor. Looking closely, she noticed it was fur. Purple, green and red fur, the same colors of the rabbit.

"Is this your home? It's pretty big for only you..." she looked at the high ceiling. "Could it be your mother was an even bigger rabbit? I can't imagine that!" she paused for a while, and then continued with a softer expression. "She must have been a really great mom, to make a comfy nest like this for you."

Lisanna sighed, deep in thought. While she had never felt lonely because of her siblings, she didn't know what it was to have parents and was always amazed by displays of motherly and fatherly love.

"You know, I wish I could do these things too." she confessed. "I mean, to build a warm and cozy nest, where everyone can rest at when they need. That way, we wouldn't need to keep wandering like we're doing. I'm sure Mira-nee and Elf-nii-chan would be happy. And then, when I get married, I would be able to make a home for my children too, don't you think it would be wonderful? I wonder how the person I'd marry would be like, though..."

And she kept daydreaming about her future life as a loving wife. Soon, the rain stopped, and the rabbit dashed to the outside. Lisanna didn't blame it for not wanting to stay on the burrow for long. It must have been raised there by its mother along other rabbits, but now there was clearly no one else there. It must be lonely to see your old home completely abandoned.

Once again looking for her siblings, she found even more abandoned nests. Whichever rabbits were raised there were probably living in another place now. That would explain why she met her furry friend in a different place of the woods. She wondered if she would find the others.

Eventually, she found Mirajane and Elfman again, and soon they found the exit of those gloomy woods. That also meant Lisanna had to say goodbye to the rabbit. But before leaving, she thought she had seen flashes of other bright colors between the trees, and hoped those were the other rabbits. She didn't want her friend to be alone.

They wouldn't see each other again so soon, but the wish to bring warmth and color to others' lives would stay on her mind for a long time.

* * *

"Lisanna. Hey, wake up."

Lisanna opened her eyes to the sound of Elfman calling her. It seemed like she had fallen asleep on the giant rabbit's soft fur.

"Huh? Anything happened, Elf-nii-chan?" She asked, still a bit drowsy.

"The rain has finally stopped, it seems. And sister wants to get back on the road right away."

"Of course I want to get back soon!" Mira said, already outside the nest. "Do you want that old man to think we failed right at our first mission? No way! And it's about time I put that armor head in her place too!"

"You shouldn't be picking rivals already, Mira-nee..." Lisanna quietly pointed out, already knowing her sister wouldn't listen. After what they went through the last months it was great to see Mira with her usual energy and personality back, but her bad attitude could be troublesome sometimes. Especially when she decided to pick fights for no reason, and recently the guild's resident armored mage, Erza Scarlet, had become her number one target.

And so Lisanna and Elfman followed their sister to the outside. The giant rabbit came soon after them, once again anxious to get away from the old nest.

"You're so grown up now, but it seems you still haven't found a new home yet..." Lisanna said softly. "It's alright! I'm sure you'll have a great place one day."

"What are talking about, Lisanna?" Mira asked. "I thought we were using the rabbit's nest." the little girl shook her head.

"Like I said before, this is an abandoned nest. I think she was raised here, but she can't stay here forever. Her mother is no longer here, and she is all grown up, so she have to make a new home somewhere and raise a lot of lovely babies one day! But before that... " Her expression became soft again, and she approached the animal. "...I have something to ask you. Do you remember what I said back then? That I wished I could make nests like you? I still feel like that. I want to give shelter to people when they need it, and to be as colorful as you so that people don't feel gloomy! And now I finally have the power to do that."

She hugged the giant rabbit.

"Will you help me?"

Activating her magic, Lisanna felt all the time she spent with that friend running through her mind. Even if she wasn't a mage back then, those memories were precious to her, and she was sure the spell would feel that connection and work just fine. After all, magic comes from the heart.

"Take Over: Animal Soul!"

"I'm never gonna get used to how big those are." Mira said, looking at her sister's new form. She was now almost identical to her rabbit friend, except for the small bit of fur in her head that resembled her hairstyle, the blue eyes, and the hands, that still looked mostly human despite being purple.

"It seems it worked just fine though!" Lisanna celebrated, and then returned to her human form. "Thank you, rabbit, thank you very much!"

Despite being startled by the girl's sudden transformations, the rabbit still looked warmly at her before finally leaving the place. Lisanna waved goodbye.

"Bye bye! Have fun with your friends!"

"So, can we get going now?" Mirajane said, after the rabbit was out of sight. "After all, we have to pay a visit to the East Forest later too. You don't want the weird animals waiting, do you?" It took Lisanna a second to remember of the talk they had earlier, and she jumped in joy when she understood.

"You're going with me there, Mira-nee?"

"Of course, we're all going!" Elfman replied. "After all, there are beasts there, so maybe I can improve my magic there too."

"Yeah, and it doesn't hurt to know the place. I mean, we live in Magnolia now, don't we?"

"Yay!" Lisanna celebrated. "I can't wait to see what we'll find there! Do you think there will be giant cats? Or maybe really colorful birds, that would be pretty too!"

And she kept rambling, and though her siblings couldn't fully understand her excitement about the weird animals, they joined the fun too, throwing in their own ideas of strange creatures at times. They were so upbeat it was hard to believe they were in the same gloomy place they crossed at the past, but things were all very different now that they had a home to return to.

* * *

Even if nests have to be left one day,  
if they were filled with love, they'll never disappear  
and if you're in need, you might find them once again.  
A reliable, warm shelter like that,  
colorful even in the darkest rainy days;  
That's all the girl wished to leave behind one day.


	4. Bird Soul

**A/N: This chapter was a pain to write because I knew exactly how it should start and end, but had no idea of what to do in the middle. That's why the plot might look a bit rushed or weak. On the flip side though, while writing the ending I had a silly smile in my face the whole time, so I'm sure that part is good.**

**Thanks to all who reviewed, followed and/or faved. And I'm sorry you had to wait all this time for an update. So let me stop rambling and get this started. Enjoy.**

* * *

The magical girl wanted a lucky charm,  
a shining magic to bring happiness.  
But when too focused in a search,  
you might lose sight of the other things in your way  
and the other paths you can take.

The ones to teach her that were the birds.

* * *

"An egg! They have an egg!"

From somewhere under the trees of Magnolia's East Forest, Lisanna grinned happily. It was the first time she visited the place with her siblings, and was enjoying that very much. Just a moment ago she had got separated from her family a bit while following a bird to its nest and was now observing it, keeping some distance so as to not disturb the animals there.

She turned around when hearing a flapping sound at her side, but it had nothing to do with the nest she was looking at. It was a little green bird she had met right when she entered the forest. Compared to all the weird animals there, it looked pretty normal, and she didn't pay much attention to it. But it seemed to had taken a liking to her, and she wondered for how long it had been following her around.

The little bird landed in her shoulder, and she smiled silently at it, before turning to face the nest again.

The birds there were the most beautiful she had ever seen. They were small, gracious, and covered in shining blue feathers that made them look like precious gems.

"I wonder if they are what people call 'blue birds of happiness'." Lisanna sighed. The rare shining animals did look like good omens, and she would love to become like them, but she didn't want to disturb them taking care of their egg, and so far hadn't got to chance to approach, less take over them.

That problem was solved quickly though, as one of the birds flew away, leaving the other to warm up the egg. Lisanna followed it, the little green bird right behind her.

* * *

"...I think we're going a bit too deep into this forest..." Lisanna whispered, worried.

The blue bird was still flying from tree to tree, and Lisanna had no idea of where it was going, nor did she manage to reach it once. And now she was worried of getting lost. But she didn't want to give up on her chase. By taking over that bird, she would become a symbol of happiness just like it, and that was everything she could wish for. And thus she continued to walk further into the forest.

Thankfully, she didn't have to walk for long, as the blue bird finally decided to stop, landing on a nearby tree. After looking at it for a while and confirming that it wasn't moving from there anytime soon, Lisanna started to think how she could get close to it without hurting it or scaring it away.

"Most animals like coming close to me, but this one's been flying away all this time so I don't think he trusts me much yet. He doesn't seem to mind me being here now, though. I wonder if he would answer to my voice." She faced the bird and called softly. "Hey, birdie, am I bothering you? I've been following you for a while now, and I wish we could be friends. You're a very pretty bird!"

The blue bird stared curiously at her, and then moved away.

"Oh." She frowned, disappointed. "I guess I should have kept quiet." Getting that bird to trust her was turning out to be a very hard task.

But then she noticed something weird. The bird seemed nervous and wary now, but that had nothing to do with her. It wasn't even looking at her anymore, instead it looked into the opposite direction, the direction it had been flying to until now.

At the same time, the little green bird that had quietly followed Lisanna the whole time started to chirp and frantically flap its wings in front of her, as if trying to get her attention.

"Uh? You're also upset now? What's wrong with you two?" The girl asked, getting worried. The green bird flew to the opposite direction the blue bird was going to, landed in a nearby tree, and chirped loudly, staring intently at Lisanna.

"That's the path where we came from just now..." she mumbled, and then had an insight. "Wait, do you want us to go back? Is it dange-"

Her suspicious were confirmed before she could voice them. Heavy footsteps were coming from the depths of the forest, and soon came a beast, a monkey-like creature with green fur, purple skin, and a wide smile.

"I thought I had heard some noise around here!" the beast said. "Finally I found you, you damn bird!"

"I-it speaks!?" Lisanna was quite shocked. She hadn't met many magical beasts in her life, and didn't think they could spoke. The creature looked at her for the first time.

"So it's you that was making noise here. Tch, just a human. Go away, all I want is the bird." And it turned to the blue animal. "Now, lead me to your delicious egg!"

The shining bird flapped its wings a few times right in front of the beast, and then flew away, the predator following it right away.

"Hey, leave him alone!" Lisanna protested, annoying the monster. It grabbed a branch from a nearby tree, and threw at her.

"Eeeeeeeek!" the girl shrieked and quickly jumped to the side trying to dodge the attack. She managed to avoid it, but at the end of the hasty movement lost her balance and tripped, falling to the ground.

For a moment, it seemed like the beast wanted to go in her direction and finish her off, but the blue bird flew in front of it yet again, determined to get its full attention, which wasn't so hard with those dazzling shiny feathers. And so the predator and prey resumed their chase. This time, Lisanna didn't interrupt them, because she didn't know how she could help, and also because she had the impression the bird wanted to be followed.

Her leg hurt and she dragged herself to the cover of the trees behind her. The green bird, which had been noisy and restless through the whole incident, flew up to her, and she gently run a finger through its little head.

"Sorry. I worried you, didn't I?" she apologized. "You tried to warn me, I should have hidden myself here with you when I had the chance. I just wanted to help, but I'm not strong enough to fight a beast by myself. I shouldn't have gone away from Mira-nee like this. She must be worried about me."

She gave a last look to the direction the blue bird had disappeared into, and now she had an idea of what had happened there. The beast had said it wanted to eat an egg, and the bird had led it to the opposite direction of its nest. It was risking its own life, exposing itself to an enemy, in order to protect its family.

"That's so brave..." Lisanna whispered in admiration. She was worried for the animal's safety, but now understood there was hardly anything she could have done from the start. That bird had its own business to take care of, and was probably used to this life. She had got carried away with the idea of becoming a blue bird of happiness, and didn't realize that there was no point in it if it meant putting herself in risk, worrying her family and forcing the animal to cooperate. After all, wasn't her magic a way to share strength with her friends? Then it would make no sense to chase a bird that didn't want to come close in the first place.

Especially when there was already a friend wanting to help right there.

"You came with me all this way, and yet I didn't even pay attention to you." She looked apologetically, gently picking the green bird in her hand. "I'm sorry, that was really mean. You might not be a blue bird of happiness, but I'm sure you're amazing in your own way. Who knows, green birds might be a good omen too. I guess I'll discover that soon with you, right?"

She smiled at her friend, and then tried to get up, but her leg was still in bad shape.

"Ow... I guess I hurt myself more than I thought at that time. Mira-nee will be angry at me. And I need to get back to her soon..."

Then the obvious solution came to her mind and she smiled sheepishly.

"Is it too selfish to ask you to help me again?"

* * *

"Kya! Ouch... W-wait just a second, I-I think I learned how to do it now- Whoa! M-maybe not, I almost hit that tree... I think humans weren't really made for this..."

With long green wings in place of her arms, Lisanna was now clumsily trying to fly through the forest. She was pretty dirty and her hair had many leaves stuck to it due to all the tree she had gone through now, but she was getting slightly better at it. At least, she could find support in the tree branches if she fell.

"I wonder if we're going the right way..." she commented, while sitting in a branch and catching her breath before taking off again. "If I could fly a bit higher, I could try looking for Mira-nee and Elf-nii-chan from above..."

After thinking of it for a while, she decided to try. It would be hard getting above the trees with her skill, but it was probably easier to fly without the entire forest as an obstacle.

"Okay..." the girl took a deep breath. "Let's go!" And her and the bird set off for the top. It took a few tries and she was seriously scared of what would happen if she fell from that height, but eventually she found herself above the forest, free in the clear blue skies.

And it was amazing.

"I'm... really flying..." Up there, without anything around her, she could finally marvel at her new ability. "This is so great! I feel like I can go anywhere!" She beamed. "The forest also looks very different from here."

She looked happily at the bird at her side.

"This is amazing, thank you. We should find Mira-nee and Elf-nii-chan now, but I want to play much more with you one day. I feel so free up here."

They soon found Mirajane and Elfman, which were desperately looking for Lisanna at the time.

"Where the hell have you been!?" Mira's reaction was just as expected, and Lisanna couldn't complain as she knew she deserved the scolding.

"Sorry, Mira-nee... I got carried away. I won't do this again."

"Geez, if you were going to do this there was no point in us coming along." the older sister just kept complaining angrily, but Lisanna knew deep down she had heard and accepted the apology. "Let's go home, you're all dirty. And why are you still flying?"

"I tripped and hurt my leg." Mira looked even more angry now. "I-It's nothing serious though, I think I'm fine now." Lisanna added quickly, and after a moment, noticing the little girl didn't seem to be in pain, the older sister calmed down a bit.

"Don't act as if you would know if it's serious or not." She sighed. "Come, let's me take a look at it. Elfman, you have a first-aid kit, don't you? Bring it here."

"Okay." Came the reply from the boy. He hadn't talked much so far, since Mirajane did most of the screaming, but Lisanna could see that, despite not being as strict as Mira, he had also been worried and was glad to see her okay. Despite the guilt she felt for giving those two all the trouble, she was glad to be around that caring family. In the back of her mind, she remembered the blue bird she chased before. She hoped it had also reunited with his family after leading the beast away. After risking itself like that, it deserved to be happy at home. But she was sure everything was fine. Those were blue birds of happiness, after all, they must have good luck. And even though she could not take over them, she was also satisfied.

There is more than one way to find happiness, after all. As long as she kept growing at her own pace, she was sure she would bring smiles to others in her own way.

* * *

Days had passed, and Lisanna had gone back to the forest several times. But the blue bird business didn't even cross her mind again. What she wanted was to play and learn how to fly with her little green friend back there. By now she had took over its entire body, and it was pretty funny to see it adapted to her size despite being originally from such a tiny creature. She still had to learn how to also turn into the small size, though, but it was just a matter of time and practice, and she had no intention of rushing things. If there was anything she learned at that incident, it was that things hardly go as planned. So she was just going to enjoy her days and enjoy whatever happened next.

It was with that mindset that Lisanna found herself spending some time in the guild, talking to her siblings and just relaxing in general. Erza had yet to come back from a mission, so her sister wasn't picking a fight in the moment, and everyone else seemed calm too. It looked like it would be a very peaceful day.

Which only proved how unpredictable life was, because soon a loud voice would come bursting out of the guild doors.

"An egg! I found an egg!"

And just like that, Lisanna would unknowingly begin yet another quest to find a blue bird.

* * *

Sometimes trying to chase happiness doesn't work,  
and there are times it comes unexpected.  
After all, judging the value of things  
is something very hard to do with a simple look.  
The girl's wings weren't shiny or beautiful,  
but it was them that later taught a blue bird how to fly.


	5. Fish Soul

**A/N: ...you are probably tired of hearing this, but I'm sorry for taking so long to update.**

**This chapter is slightly different from others because 1) it jumps through different points of time instead of being a simple linear story; 2) it focuses more on Lisanna's relationship with her human friends than the animal and 3) it drops some hints of things that will only be explained later instead of being just its own story.  
**

**I can't even tell I like or not how it turned out, so I'll just leave it here and hope for the best like always. Huge thanks to everyone who waited so far, and to the new reviews, follows and favs. ^^**

* * *

The magical girl wanted to spread happiness.  
But what would she do after that?  
She would like to just peacefully watch,  
everyone's happiness and adventures,  
for those would be great stories to see and tell.

The one to represent that dream was the fish.

* * *

Lisanna didn't remember how she first noticed the little fish. By now, the canals flowing through Magnolia were a common sight, and she didn't pay much attention to them. Yet somehow the swimming animal caught her sight one day.

She never had much contact with aquatic animals before, and that seemed like a good chance to get to know one. But as time went by it became clear that the fish wasn't doing well. Maybe it had got lost from its home, maybe it had been sick for a while, Lisanna would never know, just as she wouldn't know how to help. Soon there was yet another takeover to do, another grave to make, and another dead friend to remember.

In light of all that, Lisanna found herself in a thoughtful mood as she observed the flowing water, at the outskirts of town where she had made the grave not long ago. She had been wondering for a while how it was to live always underwater, like the fishes. She already knew by now the freedom of flying through the skies, but swimming looked very different from that, less joyful and more calming and peaceful. Or maybe it was just her current mood telling her that.

The girl transformed into her newly acquired fish form and dove in, getting used to the aquatic body. Being underwater was just as peaceful as she expected it to be and so she relaxed there for a bit, but she didn't go very far, as everything looked strange and bigger to her little fish eyes and she felt she would get lost easily. It was so scary to think she could get carried away by the flow despite not even knowing where all that water was running to. It made her feel insignificant, and given that she was already mourning a friend and the topic of death was already looming over her, it put her in a rather depressed mood.

She tried to distract herself with other thoughts, like how easy it was to not be seen by anyone in her new form. The little fish almost went unnoticed by her before, and she was sure she could do the same now. After all, people don't have any reason to look closely at the water.

Lisanna imagined that once she got a bit better with her sense of direction she could go almost everywhere in the town through the canals, which sounded like a fun way to enjoy the everyday surroundings in a new light. And there would be lots of other places with water to explore eventually. She felt like some sort of nature spirit, being able to watch everyone while not being seen. It was a silly thought, but it cheered her up a bit.

She returned to human form and went back home as it was getting late, while playing in her mind all kinds of things she could do later with her new swimming abilities, and silently thanking her lost friend for giving them to her in the first place.

* * *

Days later, Lisanna was once again calmly swimming underwater. But the scenario this time was not the canals of the town, but the lake of the now so familiar East Forest. She had hung out around that lake a few times and thought it would be a good spot for a first aquatic exploration.

She then noticed some familiar figures next to the lake. And while she was usually a well behaved girl, those people were the kind of friends she felt comfortable pulling pranks at, mainly because they liked doing that stuff too and deserved to taste of their own medicine some times. So she thought of giving them a fun surprise right now.

The fish slowly approached her unsuspecting friends, and with a swift movement jumped out of water, returning to her human form.

"Hi guys!"

"WHAT THE-!?"

"Whaaaaa!?"

Lisanna landed in the soft grass of the forest while hearing the shocked screams of Natsu and Happy beside her. She started to laugh at them, making the pink haired kid angry.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Lisanna?! Where did you came from?"

"From the lake of course! What, didn't you see me there?" she teased him.

"No! There were only fish there! You can't turn into a fish, can you?"

She just stared blankly at him, waiting for his brain to finally start working and remember what was her magic in the first place.

"Ah... so you can?" he asked sheepishly, and she nodded. "You have a lot of skills, I guess..." it wasn't the first time Natsu complimented her like that, and he sounded so indifferent she used to think he didn't actually mean it, but by now she knew him well enough to know he was actually impressed, he just had a hard time expressing it since he was not used to deal with skills that didn't have to do with fighting. Though that was quite simple-minded of him, she still enjoyed the praise regardless.

"So, what were you guys doing here?" Lisanna asked.

"Nothing really. We were going to fish, but I, uh..."

"Natsu forgot to bring his fishing rod." Happy chimed in the conversation for the first time.

Embarrassed, Natsu turned angrily at the blue cat, but before they could start bickering Lisanna decided to cheer them up a bit.

"Well, since we're all here, why don't we hang around our secret house for a while?" she suggested, referring to the straw hut she made long ago. "Then later I can cook something for you two."

The mention of food was more than enough to convince the two, and so they started to make their way through the forest in a comfortable silence. At least, until Happy pointed something out.

"Why are Gray and Erza there?"

"Huh?" Natsu blinked in confusion. He couldn't smell or see anyone else around but the three of them. Following the cat's gaze, he recognized the two papers tied to a tree nearby. "Oh. That's..."

"That's the place where you found Happy's egg, right?" Lisanna said. "You brought me here once, when that forest Vulcan attacked."

"My egg? I had an egg?" Happy asked clueless. He had never heard the story of his birth.

"More like you came from one." the girl giggled. "I'll tell you the whole story later, okay?"

"Aye!" The two then turned their attention back to their other friend.

"Natsu, what are you doing?"

The pink haired boy was untying the rope around the tree, setting free the silly drawings of Gray and Erza's faces placed there. He then burned them.

"Eh? Natsu, why you did that?" Happy asked.

"I don't need these anymore. I mean, I used these to train, but I don't come here anymore for that anyway. After all, training at home has been a lot more fun, right?" he grinned at the cat.

"Aye!"

"So you two are training together?" Lisanna asked.

"Yup! Training is a lot more fun when Happy is around!" the boy answered. "Did you know, he can even carry me around when flying! I mean, not for long, I guess he's still too young for that. But still, it's so cool!"

"Aye! And Natsu can do a lot of cool things with his magic, it's fun to watch him train! And he tells me stories about Igneel sometimes, too! We have a lot of fun together, you should come with us sometimes, Lisanna!"

"Maybe I'll do one of these days, since it's fine with you. But you two seem to make a great team."

"Yeah! One day I'll ask the old man to give Happy his guild mark and then we'll become a official team. We're gonna be the best there is!"

"Aye!" They were so excited and had such big smiles in their faces Lisanna caught herself smiling widely too.

When she first met Natsu, the first thing she noticed about him was his loneliness. That's why she reached out and listened to him back then, and as time passed by she felt she had helped him open up and connect with others for more than just picking fights.

Even so, he would still avoid working or training with others, hardly asked anyone for help or support, and there were times where he would run away and isolate himself for a while. His training spot in the forest seemed to be one of his preferred places for that, yet he was giving up on it now, and having a much better time with Happy. Even if sometimes he would still feel sad over his father's disappearance, it was clear he was less lonely now.

Being the first one to reach out to him, Lisanna had hopes they could get closer, and even thought she could one day become his best friend and partner. But if Happy was the kind of friend he needed, that was more than fine for her. They were almost like a second family to her now, one she was glad to help raising. She would be there to support they whenever they needed it, and to watch over all those little happy moments of them. Almost as if she was a guardian spirit of them.

* * *

Years had passed and now Lisanna could only feel the flow of water with her hands. For there wasn't a fish form to use anymore, and the word underwater no longer made any sense. The rivers of this world all ran through the skies, amidst the floating islands and under the light of many moons.

But no matter how much she pretended to belong to that world, Earthland would still remain in her mind, both as memories and as eerie dreams she had at some nights. Dreams of her brother in the beastly form that almost killed her, of her sister in a red dress very similar to the one she once used, of Natsu facing all kinds of deadly enemies to protect his comrades. She had just awoken from one of those dreams, and unable to fall asleep again, came to the outside to get some fresh air and clear her head.

She would like to think those dreams were real visions of what was happening back at her original home. Normally the possibility wouldn't make any sense to her, but if being sent to another world was possible, having dreams of other worlds wasn't that unreal, right?

Still, it sounded too wishful of her. The dreams weren't so realistic, and mixed some of her memories of Earthland and Edolas, like the appearance of her sister. That worried her a lot. While she loved the new family she had found in this world, she didn't want to ever forget about the other, but the more time she spent there the more her memories became confused.

Lisanna sighed. She should had thought of that before deciding to impersonate a dead counterpart. Though she would rather go through all this than watching her Edolas siblings suffer. Especially now that she had got the chance to know them better.

She was very thankful that the guild had recently moved to a floating island with a river nearby. Even if she could no longer swim in it, it was still a relaxing sight, even now.

The girl quietly began to sing a lullaby to herself, a song that had been stuck in her mind for a while, despite her not knowing where she heard it before. She would always sing it after her dreams, making up short simple lyrics about what she had seen.

It was a rather bitter irony, that she once cherished acting as a spirit and watch over her friends, and now that was everything she was capable of. To them, she was probably dead, and all she hoped for was for them to not be mourning her and be moving on with their lives instead. She sang a simple melody and words of vague meaning, because that was all she wanted to be to them. A ghost, just faintly present in their minds so as to never hold them back.

And just as she kept watching over them on those nights, there was a spirit watching over her, the same ghost that taught her the tune she hummed now. But that was something she would still take a long time to discover.

* * *

Years later, Lisanna once again dived into the waters of her original world. Against all odds, she had somehow returned, in time for one of the most important events of the guild, no less. While it was quite overwhelming for her to be in the middle of the S-Class exam while still catching up to what she missed in the last years, she had no intention of holding anyone back, so she pushed her confusion aside, helped to team up her brother with someone from one of the strongest teams of the guild, and offered to partner up with Juvia who also looked confused by the recent events due to being a new member.

On their way to Tenrou Island, while waiting for Freed's spell to wear off, she mused, not for the first time, over how different things were now. The Thunder God Tribe were much more open to others now, Laxus wasn't a member of the guild anymore, Levy was skilled enough to rewrite runes, and for some reason had teamed up with Earthland Gajeel – who looked nothing like his counterpart – instead of one of her Shadow Gear teammates.

Speaking of people and their counterparts, her sister now was surprising similar to hers, and Lisanna couldn't shake off the feeling she had something to do with that change, especially given how Mira was avoiding talking to her about the subject.

On the bright side, though she yet to see it, she heard her brother had mastered the Beast Soul, and Natsu had brought a new member to the guild and formed a team. Those were certainly a lot of things to take on, and for a moment she feared she wouldn't be able to do much on that exam being out of the loop for so long.

But as the runes disappeared and the exam started, she caught a glimpse of Natsu and Happy blasting off to the island. Despite everything, they were still each other's best partner. It seems some things never change. She silently wished them good luck on the exam.

"Lisanna, can you keep up with Juvia?" she broke up from her thoughts as she heard her partner's voice. That's right, even if she was weak compared to others now, even if she had nothing against the others winning, she still had to do her best, for Juvia. And thus she started to swim as fast as she could, with new motivation.

She had somehow managed to escape death and return home after a long time. Even if she was not in touch with everything going on, she still had many stories to tell. Stories of the past, and of another world. And thanks to her beloved ones who kept going despite all sadness and hardships, she was sure there would be many still other adventures to come, and this time she would watch through them all. She would be there to share all the happiness and sorrow, and to help whenever she could. Because she was no ghost. Just a quiet unnoticeable watcher as that little fish body represented.

* * *

There would always be a distance between  
those who lived and the girl presumed dead.  
Yet her eyes would be always following them,  
because living in another world she learned  
people can be brought together in mysterious ways,  
and she hoped to one day feel part of the living again.


	6. Tigress Soul (?)

**A/N: Once again, this chapter won't focus on an animal, but still has to do with her magic, and once again drops some hints about the future chapters. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, so I hope you enjoy it too. ^^**

**As always, thanks for all the reviews,, follows and favs, I'm glad people are enjoying this!**

* * *

A magical girl who had lived in another world,  
amidst conflicts and rebellions.  
There she learned she could be,  
instead of a peaceful bringer of happiness,  
a hopeful, passionate rebel dreaming of freedom.

Yes, a wild and prideful soul, like that of a tigress.

* * *

Enemies were attacking the guild's sacred island. The S-Class exam had to be interrupted and everyone was in danger. Lisanna never heard of something like that ever happening before. She felt she should be very shocked.

Yet her initial surprise wore off quickly and she soon got ready to battle. While she would never expect a crisis to happen now, she had spent her last years as a member of Edolas' last dark guild. There were many times she and her comrades had to stand up against a surprise attack from the army there. And with her sister by her side now, she was sure no one would be capable of defeating them. She knew she was weaker than the other mages after being away for so long, and she had just lost against Erza not long ago, but she still felt confident, maybe even a bit cocky.

The dark guild she had been part of had a reason to rebel against the law, only wished for a free and just kingdom, and would do anything to protect their comrades, just like their counterparts. The enemies they were facing now were nothing like that, they were just weak cowards gathering around a powerful master and wishing for forbidden strong magic without a care for the damage they caused to others. They had no unity or actual goals, and she would show them how pathetic excuses for dark mages they were. Though somewhere in her mind she realized how unlike her those judgmental thoughts were.

Lisanna was so caught in her memories of Edolas that for a moment she looked for the old weapon she used to have there. Then she realized her mistake, and activated her tigress takeover instead, slashing several of the opponents around her with her grey claws. Her confidence was growing with every enemy knocked out, and she began to get excited with the fight, sporting a cocky smile and enjoying to feel her long hair dancing at the wind with every movement she made.

Only later would she realize that there was no reason for her hair to have grown during the transformation, nor had she ever called that form 'tigress' before, it was a cat form. Sure, some had suggested the other name at times due to her stripes, but she always preferred to stay true to the origins of her magic. After all, that was her way to always remember her animal friends. So why her mind had messed up things this time?

'Tigress sounds stronger'.

It was the only thing she could think of, but it was very strange for her to think like that. While being strong was good, it was never her main goal.

She eventually gave up on trying to understand what happened, but the uneasiness remained in her mind.

* * *

The battles at Tenrou Island had ended and Lisanna felt she had been a complete disgrace at them. She had been a burden to Mirajane and couldn't even protect her later in the camp, having to be saved by Freed and Bixlow.

Reflecting at those failures, she remembered the incident with her cat takeover from before.

In her room, standing in front of a mirror, she activated that form, and ran a hand through her hair. It was still short just like it should be, she never managed to repeat the incident, and she didn't even want to. That long haired form had appeared when she was being overconfident and foolish, so it felt like a representation of her failure. She didn't want to ever get carried away like that. That was what had put her sister in danger back then.

But she still felt there was something slipping off her mind right now. Returning to her normal form, she tried to use transformation magic. While she wasn't nearly as good as her sister in it, she knew the basics, and they would be enough for what she wanted to do.

Soon she was staring at a long haired version of herself, and the sight made her finally remember what she had been missing so far. She had seen herself like that before. Or to be more accurate, her counterpart had that hairstyle. She had looked at many pictures of her while in Edolas, and from what she had heard, Edo-Lisanna had always loved her hair long, and only cut it a few months before her death. She thought it would be more practical for battle.

In fact, while Lisanna had a hard time thinking of her counterpart as an opposite, since she spent so much time pretending to be the girl, if there was something completely different about the two, it was their battle spirit. Lisanna never focused in her fighting skills, having them just good enough to do well on her jobs, while Edolas Lisanna was said to love spending time in training sessions, and was never unprepared for a fight. She wasn't the stronger of the guild, but her pride, passion and energy were unrivaled, and inspired the others through many hardships.

It had been tough for Lisanna to pretend to be like that too, and now that she knew her Edo-siblings had discovered the truth long ago, she was starting to think she never got her act right. She hadn't been as active in fights as her counterpart, though that was excused since she had just almost died and no one wanted her to take unnecessary risks anyway. And though all the losses and problems they faced had eventually took their toll at everyone, she had been as energetic as she could at keeping everyone hopeful. And as selfish as it might sound, she actually liked how easier it was there for others to respect her authority when she lectured them, and how she was at the same power level as her sister there, and how often she managed to cheer the others up.

Indeed, despite everything, she had loved the people of Edolas, and grew up a lot there. She had hoped to keep up that development now back in Earthland, but things weren't going well so far.

The girl ran her fingers through her fake long hair. She always preferred it short, but couldn't deny it looked good on her. It was a shame Edo-Lisanna decided to cut it, even though she shouldn't complain as that helped her to take her place.

'It was a clumsy attempt at looking stronger'.

Yes, that was probably it. She had had lots of meaningful hairstyles changes through her life, so it was possible her counterpart had done the same.

Not for the first time, Lisanna wondered what her other self would think of being impersonated by her. Would she be angry? Would she be glad that someone had helped her siblings? Those questions would probably never be answered.

But still, to think she would unconsciously mimic her counterpart's hair while enjoying a fight... She had truly taken that impersonation too far, hadn't she? She always feared having her memories of Earthland and Edolas mixed, but perhaps what had truly mixed were the personalities of both her selves. Which shouldn't surprise her, as she always thought that, no matter how opposites they looked like, people and their counterparts were deep down the same.

She still disliked the thought of acting overconfident and reckless again, but now she didn't think so bitterly of the previous incident. Carrying on Edo-Lisanna's passion and hope didn't sound like a bad thing.

* * *

A long time passed and Lisanna hadn't improved much. She tried her best in every fight she got herself in, but still became a burden to others many times. She didn't know what to think of her skills anymore, but already understood she wasn't getting anywhere keeping her problems to herself. But she still didn't want to bother her siblings when they were already doing so much to protect her, so she turned to someone else who was close to her and would probably never refuse a training session.

And there she was now, at the well known East Forest of Magnolia, laying down at the ground after losing yet another match against Natsu Dragneel. She didn't even know how many times he had won already, and the situation only wasn't more frustrating because there was someone else there to share her pain. For whatever reason, Happy had decided to take part in the training too. Maybe it was just to keep her company, maybe it was to have fun among the two, or maybe he really had hopes of becoming more useful in battle. She couldn't really understand his intentions, but was enjoying to have him around nonetheless.

"Natsuuu..." the cat cried. "You're being too mean..."

"Stop complaining, I'm trying to go easy on you! This is just how training is, okay?" And Lisanna had to agree, Natsu was holding back a lot against them. In fact, she thought he was a much better teacher than expected, and was being very patient with the two. But there was still a limit to how much he could help, given that they all used completely different styles of magic and that their skills were at completely different levels.

"So, are you both done? If so, we can stop and rest for a bit."

Lisanna got up.

"I-I still want to continue. At least a bit more."

"You sure? You haven't landed a hit since the start of the session."

"That's mean!" She cried. "Shouldn't you be encouraging me here?"

"I am! I'm saying you should go back to acting like you were at the start. You were way more into the battle back then."

"I was? I don't remember getting distracted later."

"Yeah, I guess you weren't distracted, but... I dunno how to say it, you just sort of lose all your energy after the first moments. Your attacks get really predictable after that."

"I guess I see what you mean... But it's hard to be unpredictable all the time."

"That's what training is for, you train and train and train until you find something new to test, and then you train and train and train even more until you start getting these new tings by instinct, and then you train and train and train..."

"Natsu, I think we already got the idea." While almost everyone knew Natsu was always excited for a fight, few knew he had almost the same excitement for teaching things. It was probably because he hardly got the chance to do it, or maybe it had something with how he was taught. He did mention Igneel's teachings a lot of times through their training, after all.

Lisanna readied her cat takeover to show him she was ready for the next round, and then dashed at him. While he avoided all the attacks, Lisanna didn't worry much, because she wasn't focusing at him, she was paying attention to her own reactions, and soon confirmed what she suspected.

She had been suppressing her own abilities so far. Afraid to get too overconfident, she had limited herself to a few attack sequences that weren't too risky. Because if she would just be true to herself, she would realize she was enjoying all the fighting. At some point of her life she had grown prideful of being able to fight alongside her friends, and it was no use to deny it. In fact, why should her? She had already learned that fighting is necessary sometimes, so it would be much better to enjoy the battles than to dread them.

And thus, she decided to embrace her battle spirit once again. Natsu spent a moment in confusion as the girl's hair grew longer for no reason.

He would regret the distraction as she landed a series of fierce slashes at him. Only after a while he managed to block her.

"What the hell was that, Lisanna?!" he could see her smiling confidently in front of him. He had noticed a similar smile when she started the training, and he knew she was enjoying the battles so far -actually it was hard for Natsu to imagine someone not enjoying themselves in a fight-, but this was different, she looked much more prideful and motivated now.

"I was just trying to be a wild tigress for once. I was avoiding being reckless so far because that has brought a lot of problems before, but I won't get anything by being cowardly and meek, right? So I guess I'll have to work hard to find a balance between these things. And you just told me how to do it, right? Training and training and more training."

Natsu just stared at her, speechless for a moment. He was eager to help when Lisanna requested his help at training, but never expected this. That was a side of her he didn't know. And he was loving to discover it.

"Heh, I didn't know you were like this when you're serious! Okay then, let's see what more-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Lisanna had fallen to the ground, back to her human form.

"...Lisanna?"

"... Sorry... I'm... completely exhausted now..." she whispered faintly.

"No way, man, we were just starting!" In his excitement Natsu had seemingly forgotten that they had trained the whole day.

"Well that was anticlimatic." Happy commented.

"Give me a break, senpai... I'm tired..."

"Why the hell are you calling me 'senpai'?!"

"I think you broke her, Natsu. That's pretty mean."

"Shut up! I did nothing wrong here!"

And from that day on, the three became regular training partners. And though Lisanna was still far from stopping Natsu's winning streak, she was happy enough to have learned to accept her fighting spirit. While she still worried about the mistakes she could make, denying a part of herself wouldn't help at all, and so she simply dedicated herself to the training and hoped for the best.

Also, from that moment on, even though she still recognized her form as a cat one, she began to name many of her attacks around tigress. She just felt that it represented her new found motivation better, and it wasn't like she was forgetting about her cat friend. Though sometimes she still wondered how the tigress got stuck in her mind in the first place.

* * *

It is not right to steal one's identity,  
but to be inspired by their will is not a mistake.  
The magical girl learned of the rebel she could be,  
and by the end of all lies, had a wild spirit of her own.  
If the other girl knew, would be she be angry or amazed  
at those different sides all coexisting in peace?


	7. Human Soul

**A/N: Yes, this fic still exists, sorry for not updating in hell knows how much time.**

**I don't even have an excuse for that, except that 1) I haven't been in a Fairy Tail mood lately and 2) this chapter is kind of abstract and uses a lot of headcanons and it was kinda hard to put it all together in a way that made sense. I'm satisfied with the result though (it's actually the biggest chapter so far), but I'll let you give me the real feedback.**

**Also, I'll be probably be ending this story next chapter. It's not like I don't have ideas for more, but I couldn't form a coherent plot to use them yet and since NaLi week will be coming soon, I would be working in another projects anyway instead of writing this, so I think it's better to give it a satisfying conclusion than to put it in a undetermined hiatus. Besides, if I came up with new plots later I can write a sequel or something.**

**Now that all announcements and rambling are done, please enjoy the story! **

**Oh, and of course, thanks for all reviews, favorite and follows ^^**

* * *

The magical girl gone a long way  
since the start of her quest,  
and had learned many things.  
But some tales are so vague and abstract,  
it's hard to find what to learn from them.

Such was the meeting between her and the ghost.

* * *

The incident happened at the end of one of their training sessions.

To Lisanna, at first it felt like nothing had changed. She noticed her surroundings were different, but something in her mind told her it didn't matter. That was still a training session and she still had to concentrate on fighting her opponent. Simple as that.

But even that weird assurance she had couldn't stop her from being confused when she saw her new opponent.

It was a statue almost identical to her, but with no colors. It looked like it was made of sand. Lisanna felt she had seen something like that before.

The statue opened its eyes, shining blue orbs that contrasted with the pale sandy tones of the body, and launched towards her. Still surprised by the whole situation, Lisanna couldn't dodge the attack in time, and cried in pain as it hit her.

"What... what is going on? Who are you?" she asked. Maybe it wasn't so smart to expect a statue to answer her question, but to be fair, the thing wasn't supposed to be moving either.

The sand duplicate answered nothing, only staring at her for a moment. At first the stare was blank as you would expect from a statue, but then Lisanna felt she could recognize some emotion there -amusement, maybe?- before it launched for another attack. This time, the girl was a bit more prepared and could dodge.

They exchanged a few more blows before once again stopping to face each other. By now, Lisanna had already seen enough of their surroundings to know they didn't make any sense. They were a mix of several places she knew, and others she didn't recognize, but still felt familiar. After a moment, she understood why. Those were parts of places she had seen in dreams, the eerie dreams about Earthland she used to have while in Edolas.

"So this is a dream?" was she conclusion she came to, even though something was still missing. After coming back to her home world and hearing stories about the last two years, she quickly gathered that those dreams had been actual visions of what had happened while she was gone. So why would she have one of them now that she was back? And why would she need to fight a copy of her?

Turning her attention back to said copy, she noticed it was smirking now. But Lisanna didn't feel any malice from it, just amusement and satisfaction. As if it had liked the conclusion the girl had just came to and wanted to hear more.

Just as the girl thought that, it launched to attack her again and they resumed fighting. And as she felt the opponent's excitement, the thrill of the fight and the dreamy atmosphere, something clicked at her mind this time and she even felt ridiculous for not realizing it before.

When you spend years of your life impersonating someone else and even have an identity crisis over that, it shouldn't be so hard to guess who is the person that looks like you.

"You are..." she didn't even need to finish the sentence, because her suspicions were already confirmed. The opponent in front of her was no longer a sand statue, but an actual human girl, wearing a blue and white dress and holding a magical sword in her hand.

"Took you long enough to notice." she said, before slashing Lisanna with the new weapon. The earthland girl fell to the ground in pain, but noticed the sword didn't hurt her as much as it should. In fact, it didn't even cut her. She thought of it as yet more weirdness from the dreamland she was in now. The same weirdness that apparently had brought the ghost of her counterpart to fight her.

And she was sure it was an actual ghost, and not just a figment of her imagination. Not just because other dreams of her had proved to be real, but also because that assumption simply felt right. She could feel a connection with the other girl, read her emotions easily, almost as if she was reading her thoughts. Despite being there as an enemy, Edo-Lisanna's presence wasn't menacing or invasive at all. It felt natural, even familiar.

"What are you doing here?" Lisanna asked, getting up.

"Sorry, but I'm not explaining this again. Besides, it doesn't really matter now. This is just a training match. Let's just fight!"

"Wait, what do you by 'again'-" Once again Lisanna was interrupted by a slash, though she could dodge this time. She kept avoiding the next attacks, not wanting to fight back now that she knew the opponent's identity and that she could talk and thus answer her questions.

"Can you stop!? Did you really come to my dreams just for a fight? If so, then at least tell me the reason! And why did you looked like a statue at the beginning? There are a lot of things here that doesn't make any sense!"

"The statue was part of one of the dreams you remember the most, don't blame me for getting mixed up with it. Besides, you should like to have a chance to beat that thing up." She was right. Lisanna had already recognized that statue as something from one of her most hated dreams. It had been used to hurt her brother, to blame him for her death.

"But why am I dreaming? I don't remember falling asleep, I was still training with Natsu and Happy..."

"It's not my fault." Edo-Lisanna sighed, looking more serious than before. "I just decided to take some advantage of it. Or would you prefer to be completely blacked out? That sounds like a waste of time to me. You can't slack off during training."

Lisanna didn't know either to be annoyed or amused at her dedication towards training.

"Listen," the ghost girl said solemnly. "just drop your questions for now, okay? There will be another time to answer them. I'm not going anywhere."

After staying at that dream for so long, Lisanna was becoming more aware of her connection with the other girl. She could feel her emotions more clearly now, and she felt that statement had been not only truthful, but also very meaningful.

Edo-Lisanna wasn't going anywhere. She had always been there. In her mind and in her dreams.

And all she wanted was a good fight. Not just that, but she wanted to contribute to her counterpart's growth, even if with just one battle. It was funny, considering the girl was the reason Lisanna found her own fighting spirit in the first place.

The earthland girl decided she could save the questions for later and respect the dead girl's wishes for now.

"Okay, I get it. I'll get serious now." she said, activating one of her take-overs. Or at least dreaming she was using one. She tried not to dwell much on how this dream battle stuff worked, otherwise she would only be even more confused.

Edo-Lisanna said nothing, just grinned widely as they threw themselves into battle once again.

* * *

Lisanna woke up at Natsu's arms, feeling his and Happy's worried looks at her.

They told her that during their training, she started to act weirdly, not responding to them and standing still with her eyes fixed on the sky above. Not knowing what to do, they could only wait until she stopped and almost fell to the ground, had Natsu not caught her.

Still processing the new information, Lisanna tried to notice anything weird about herself, but she felt just fine. She then reassured her friends that she was okay, and told them everything she could remember from the weird dream she had just now: Edo-Lisanna disguising herself as a statue from another dream, their fight, the way it didn't feel weird at all for the girl's ghost to be there. She couldn't remember much of what they had talked about during the fight though, despite being sure a conversation had happened.

The three discussed the incident a bit more, but as there was nothing they could do for now, they decided to get some rest and look into it later. As they headed back home, Lisanna thought about Edo-Lisanna. The dream had made her feel like the edolas girl had been in her mind for a long time, and she wondered if she could feel her presence there if she tried.

She soon discovered she could, even if just very faintly. That fact made her uneasy, and yet, she couldn't help but be curious about what was the girl like, and was she was there. She began wishing they could meet again soon.

* * *

Time passed, and still no one had an explanation for what had happened to Lisanna that day. As the incident never repeated itself, and the girl didn't show any other strange behavior after that, everyone eventually stopped looking into it, and some even forgot about it.

Lisanna herself didn't care much about it anymore. She couldn't feel Edo-Lisanna's presence unless she really wanted to, and she didn't have any other dreams with her as far as she remembered.

The only thing that had changed after that day was that she could now remember having dreamed of her counterpart before, when she was still at Edolas, but even those memories were too vague and often slipped from her mind. Thus, she carried on with her life normally.

The situation only became relevant again when, like in most adventures she had lived so far, dark mages got involved. And, again like the majority of times, she didn't have many details of what was going on. Natsu and others were already dealing with it, and she was left at the sidelines like always, which was just fine for her. She didn't care about having a main role, she just wanted to be there to help whenever someone needed.

But when she was suddenly transported away from everyone and to a deserted place that for some reason reminded her of the Anima, she started to have the feeling things were going to be in her hands this time.

The ground under her feet was completely white and flat, the sky was full of dark clouds, and weird little bubbles floated calmly in midair. It reminded her of the description Happy had given her once of how Magnolia looked after being sucked by the Anima, with only a few differences. One of them was that back then, the bubbles were going up, slowly attracted by the remains of the Anima in the sky.

Another one was the lone building in front of her. It had the symbol of their current enemies engraved on it, so she didn't expect it to be good news. And yet, she felt attracted to it.

Guided by that attraction, she entered it, using take-overs of the smallest animals she had in disposal to go on unnoticed. Along with the fact the dark mages were already distracted by the others attacking them, it worked well, and she eventually reached what she thought to be the center of it, and also the thing calling for her.

The room had nothing but a transparent container that seemed to be storing a lot of magical energy. Lisanna began to feel weird looking at it, as if it was messing with her mind somehow.

She remembered old dreams clearly this time. She felt the presence of a ghost in her mind more strongly than ever, and yet at the same time she felt like it was being pulled away from her. The sensations were bizarre and overwhelming, and she closed her eyes in an attempt to sort things in her head.

When she opened them again, Edo-Lisanna stood floating right in front of her.

"Hello." She greeted calmly.

"You're the Lisanna of Edolas." it was an obvious statement, but she couldn't think of anything else to say. It was already hard enough to process everything that was going on, and that she was talking to a ghost outside of her dreams for the first time.

"Yep. It's nice to finally meet you in reality. Since that means this time you're remember everything that happens."

"So, you've been talking to me through my dreams all this time, and I never realized?" Lisanna was pretty sure she knew the answer to that question, but wanted the confirmation anyway. This was their chance to make everything clear.

"Not only dreams. I've been watching over you all this time. Slightly influencing some stuff in your mind. Didn't you feel at times that your memories of Earthland and Edolas were mixing? That you knew more stuff from there than you should? That was my doing. I thought that since you had decided to impersonate me, you could use a hand."

Lisanna hesitated. She had many questions and didn't know where to start from.

"How... how did all this happen? Did the Anima trapped your soul in me all those years ago? Is something like that even possible?"

"So it seems. I think there was much more to the Anima than the kingdom knew. It's not just a transportation magic, it connects our worlds in many different ways. At least, that's the feeling I get in this place."

"You know what this place is?"

"Now I do. It wasn't you the one being attracted by it back then, it was me. It wanted to extract my soul from you, like it just did. And now I feel sort of connected to it, so I know what is happening." She paused for a moment, then continued. "This is a place between Earthland and Edolas. Sort of a passageway. That's why it feels so similar to the Anima. But it's not meant for people and things to travel between the worlds. It's meant for... a special kind of magical power, I guess. A power that connects the two dimensions and helps shaping their similarities without anyone noticing. That's what allows identical counterparts to exist. And right now, I think it's the same power that connects us."

She paused to observe Lisanna's reaction to the explanation so far. The girl's expression was blank, as she didn't know much what to make of all the things she was learning now. Despite that, she still wanted to get to the bottom of it, so she quietly gestured for the ghost girl to keep talking.

"The meddling the kingdom did with Anima, and the meddling the current bad guys are doing... it seems to have disturbed the natural way of things here. Strengthening the link between the worlds, and allowing a bit of the magical power from them to flow here. It's probably also what brought us together in the first place."

She turned to the magical container behind her.

"The dark mages are storing all the new power flowing here. They probably mean to use it as a weapon or a power-up to their own magic or whatever. Very smart, since no one else should be able to access this place. No one else but us." she smiled at the other girl.

"Only us? But Natsu and the others are here too."

"Yes, because they were near you. This thing" she pointed again at the container. "is made to gather more and more power. And we are linked by the same kind of power, so it's been calling us here. Remember that time when you blacked out in the middle of training?"

"It was trying to bring me here?"

"Yes. Only now it has become strong enough to do it, and even bring other people along. But despite that, it haven't absorbed us or anything like that yet. I believe it doesn't mean harm to us. Because we've been linked for so long that this power already feels natural to you. I think we've been chosen to be in control of the otherworldly things."

"You mean..."

"We can put an end to this right now. If we manage to control and destroy this thing, I think nature itself will find a way for the power to flow back normally. Our villains will be pretty frustrated at that." she smirked.

Lisanna breathed deeply, trying to accept that. She trusted her counterpart, but everything was so suddenly and sounded so absurd. Could she really control all that power? Was that really a part of her? And she never noticed that before?

Even with all the doubts though, she decided it was worth a try, if it could save everyone.

But there was still a question lingering in her mind.

"If we dissipate this, and the power starts flowing normally again... What will happen to you? Since you're not inside me right now?"

Edo-Lisanna's smile faltered for a bit, and her eyes softened.

"What should have happened from the start, I guess. Our bond is already weakened now, so I'll go away. To whenever the dead go."

"But if I can control this power, can't I-"

"I don't know, and I don't think is worth trying. I've already avoided this for too long." she looked away. "Back when I was alive, I always wanted to be the hero of our guild. I wanted to be strong, to be brave, to be remembered by everyone."

"And yet, I've died a silly death, falling off a cliff. I was so frustrated... I wonder if that's what made me stay. Are ghosts really bound by their regrets?" she shook her head, trying to return to the main topic. "Either way, when I realized I was trapped inside you, I was so confused, at first. I didn't know what to do, and I just watched as you pretended to be me and comforted my siblings."

Her eyes met Lisanna's, and it almost hurt to see the living girl's guilty face.

"This is what you've always wanted to know, isn't it? How I felt about that?" she asked, and averted her gaze again. "I won't deny, I was angry at first. I didn't want them to forget about me and replace me with a stranger. I wanted to scream, to make them realize that I was there, and that I wasn't you. I think I could've done that. You were so confused back then, I could've messed with your head, make you admit the truth. But I didn't. Because I could feel what you were feeling too, why you did that. I could understand how much you loved your siblings, how you could recognize part of them in mine, how you didn't want them to be sad. And I realized I wanted the same too."

"So instead of hating you, I started to help. I gave you memories of Edolas, I talked to you in your dreams. It was still sad to be replaced, but they were happy, and I still felt I had a hand in that, in a sense." she gave an embarrassed smile. "I know it sounds selfish but, I felt like you were a second chance for me, a continuation of my dreams, even in death. And I began to like you too. You were always so kind, despite not knowing what was happening most of the time. You made me feel less lonely, and more at ease about my own death."

"And when Mira-nee and Elf-nii-chan said they didn't mistook you for me, I know you were sad back then, but I was so relieved, I even felt silly for thinking they could ever replace me! It hurt that I never saw they again, but by then I was just enjoying whatever I could get, living through you. And I wanted to repay you somehow for everything you did, that's why I tried to help you train and all that."

Lisanna didn't know how the ghost girl was so calm saying all that, because she was on the verge of tears. She knew a goodbye would be coming soon, and she wasn't ready for that. It was weird, feeling so much for a dead person whose existence she could barely remember until a few moments ago, but now that her old dreams were clear in her mind, she knew Edo-Lisanna's feelings weren't one-sided. She had enjoyed her moments with the girl.

"And now I want to finally be brave and face this." Edo-Lisanna continued. "Maybe I'll make a last visit to Edolas when I'm released. See how everyone's doing. And then I'll move on."

"Good luck then." Lisanna wished, forcing a smile. "I hope everyone is doing well. And..." she hesitated. "And thanks. For everything."

"I have to thank you for everything too." she grinned. "It's been fun, Strauss-chan."

With no more words, Lisanna closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began concentrating on controlling the magic in front of her. She felt Edo-Lisanna was trying her best to help too, even if she didn't have as much experience with that kind of control than an earthland mage.

She eventually could feel the similarity between the stored power and her own. In fact, she couldn't understand how she didn't notice it before, but staying in Edolas for years without using her magic had probably dulled her senses, so she couldn't realize the difference after coming back.

But none of this mattered now. All she wanted was to end this.

As she gained a bit of control over the mass of magical power, Edo-Lisanna's ghost jumped right inside of it. The bond between the two girls became the bond between Lisanna and the energy, and she wasted no time in taking advantage of that.

All the other mages around could only watch as the energy rose from the building and exploded in midair. Against all logic and expectations, the burst took the shape of a giant white bird. The power soon began to rain down on everyone, returning to Earthland and bringing the mages back with it. But Lisanna knew a small part of it, unnoticed by everyone but her, had flown to the skies, towards Edolas.

"Goodbye... Edo-chan." she whispered, smiling tearfully at the nickname she had just thought, before falling to the ground, exhausted.

* * *

Later on, with the dark mages defeated and already far away, she would explain what had happened to her comrades, and laugh off their amazement, saying she didn't really know what she was doing with that magic and it wasn't as awesome as they were imagining. It didn't stop their praises, nor did it stop her siblings from feeling both incredibly proud and terribly worried about her. It took some time to convince them she was fine and that the odd magical power she just discovered she had wasn't threatening, and after that, they all went to party among the others, like all their adventures usually end.

But she wouldn't sleep peacefully along them, as there was still too much going on her head to keep her awake. Only now that Edo-Lisanna had left was that she could realize how used to her presence she was, how connected to the other girl's feelings. She couldn't put into words what was different, but she felt an odd emptiness. She hoped it would heal with time. After all, Edo-Lisanna would keep living inside her heart, just like all her other lost friends. She couldn't keep feeling sad about that when there were other people around loving her so much.

She should have died all those years ago, when sacrificing herself to stop her brother, yet she had been given a magical second chance. And while Lisanna would always be somewhat bothered by how unfair this was to others, she wouldn't ever think of wasting it. Her life slowly returned to normal, and she remained as energetic and kind as ever. No one would ever think something inside her had changed at all.

But sometimes, she would still feel the emptiness return, and reminisce of her old dreams. She would tell about them to others, so that they could know at least a bit of the girl and the odd friendship that formed between them. Whenever she fought, she would be reminded of her and her unstoppable passion for battle. She would always carry those remains of a bond she did not even understand completely, and she would treasure them forever.

* * *

A world of magic is one full of wonders,  
but one of constant doubts over reality as well.  
The girl is still confused by her bond with the ghost,  
made of nothing but dreams and intertwined souls.  
But her regained memories were precious enough,  
they were worth all the doubts and mysteries.


	8. Unknown Soul

**A/N: Here it is, last chapter. It's the shortest one since some things were left vague on purpose since I pretend to develop them more in other stories and also because they wouldn't fit much the theme of this one.**

**Also, just like the last ones this chapter involve more headcanons than anything else. I suppose I could have gone for a more simple and normal idea that would have the same spirit and be easier to fit into canon, but I love my headcanons too much for that. So sorry if the idea here seems to be come out of nowhere, like I said, I plan to develop it more later.**

**And at last, thanks for everyone that read this far. Despite all troubles and delays writing this has been great, and I'm glad people enjoyed it. ****So let me stop talking now, and just hope you enjoy the ending too. ^^**

* * *

This story is now coming to an end.  
That does not mean the magical girl's quest  
is over, it's far from that, in fact.  
But it has reached a turning point now,  
and no one can tell yet what changes it will bring.

That turning point, my dear, is you.  
But it's too soon to tell what kind of soul is yours, isn't?

* * *

Lisanna lifted the pen from the book, thinking of what to write next.

Said book was possibly Lisanna's most whimsical project in a while. She had started it in a burst of inspiration during a lonely night, and didn't expect it to last more than three or four pages, yet recording her memories through small sentences and childish pictures had turned to be a comforting pastime, and by now she already had a pretty big collection of stories. She even wondered why she never thought of doing it before, being someone who treasured memories so much. It was probably because she was never good at writing long stories, the simple style and illustrations were helping her a lot with that.

Besides that, there was another reason she was making that book. As she became satisfied with her storytelling skills, she decided that book would be a gift. A gift to a very special someone.

She got up from the rocky floor she had been sitting on, stretching her arms and legs after being in the same position for too long. It would probably be more comfortable to write in her room with a proper desk like she usually did, but today's chapter was special and she couldn't find the inspiration to write it anywhere but in the small warm cave she was in now.

She turned her gaze to her side, to the origin of the warmth, and her eyes softened immediately with the kind feelings she felt looking at the object.

It was an egg. No one knew where it had come from, and it was even bigger than an Exceed's, filled with magical energy. Certainly it would hatch into a magical beast. In fact, it was rumored to be a dragon's egg. Thus, it was quite simple to see how it had got into Lisanna's hands. History had repeated itself and her and Natsu found themselves once again in magical egg duty.

And once again, Lisanna didn't care much if it was a real dragon egg or not. She didn't feel like creating a lot of expectations about her new 'child'. She had accepted to raise it, and she was going to love and care for it no matter what it turned out to be.

After all, humans or animals or beasts or demons, all beings can be connected by their souls. This was something she would always believe in.

But despite trying to be confident about the task, she was quite worried about it. Unlike Happy's egg, this one had been in their possession for months already and still showed no signs of hatching. She wondered if they were doing something wrong, and part of her feared that even if the creature was born healthy, she wouldn't be ready to bear the responsibility of raising it. Happy had been simple, as it turned out Exceeds mature pretty fast. But now she had no idea of what she would face, and all the waiting was making her anxious.

Thus, whenever the worries got too strong to bear, she would rush to the cave they were keeping the egg in and rest there. The warmth of the egg was soothing, and sometimes she would close her eyes and dream of a good, peaceful future. She would whisper all kinds of things to the egg, and sometimes she felt the energy around it reacting a bit. It might have been just her imagination, but she liked to think it was the creature answering her. She already felt like a mother to it, even though it wasn't born yet.

It was so weird, that her normal wishes of making others happy and raising a family had brought her to increasingly strange and magical situations. Sometimes she imagined how it would have been if she had been just a normal mage, never gone to another world, going at normal jobs, maybe helping Mira as a waitress, and eventually marrying and having normal babies. There was a time, albeit only a short, depressing moment of her life, she even wished for that.

Lisanna hated that she ever did so, and that's where the inspiration for her little book eventually came from. It was a solid proof of how every moment of her life mattered and taught her something.

Her story was magical and confusing and quite convoluted, and she still had many doubts and questions in her mind, but she wouldn't have it any other way, and she didn't want to waste precious time of her life wondering of other possibilities. She just wanted to live and to love and to be there for everyone and to face the future with them. And now, she also wanted to protect the little being that hadn't even came to the world yet, but already made her feel so caring and motherly inside.

Whatever kind of being it was, it would be born into the same confusing world she lived in, and if Lisanna could guide it at least a little, and made it feel safe and not so lost in life, it would be more than enough for her. Those were the feelings she wanted to communicate to it no matter how, the words she wished that were being heard through the thick egg shell, the ones that gave meaning to all the stories she wrote.

And it was like this that she finally found what to write next in her book, the message she wished for her child to read at the end of a magical girl story similar to the ones she enjoyed during her childhood.

She picked up her pen again and began to write:

* * *

The story is over, yes, but don't be sad.  
All the things the magical girl learned,  
she wishes you have learned now as well.  
And if you still have questions, don't worry,  
you can go on your own quest to solve them,  
and your tale might be as enjoyable as hers.

I will be looking forward to hear it one day.

* * *

Lisanna doodled a picture of a magical girl waving goodbye to illustrate the page, and closed the book. She would color it and finish things later, as it was getting late and she had other things to do.

She got up, and went to check the egg, touching it and caressing it softly for a moment. Then she went out, and while she didn't want to break the comfortable silence, as she stood at the entrance of the cave, she felt like giving a proper goodbye. She looked back at the egg and said:

"Bye. I'll be back soon, okay?" And she waved her hand just like the girl in her drawing before heading out.

Had she stayed just a bit longer, she might had heard the small clacking sounds answering her from inside the egg.

But she didn't, and the next chance to hear her beloved unknown soul would only come much later.


End file.
